Another game, another no-hitter for U.S. softball

Published 11:27 pm Wednesday, August 13, 2008

BEIJING — Members of the U.S. women’s softball team sincerely believe the competition is improving in the Olympic tournament.

So far, it’s hard to tell from the results.

With Cat Osterman throwing a no-hitter and Crystl Bustos blasting a two-run homer, the U.S. won its 16th consecutive Olympic softball game, beating Australia 3-0 Wednesday at the Fengtai Softball Field.

The U.S. team, which is 2-0 and has yet to give up a hit, continues pool play today, facing Canada.

Osterman picked up the third win of her Olympic career, striking out 13 and walking three in topping the one-hitter she threw in an eight-inning win over Japan at Athens. Only the second complete game no-hitter by a U.S. pitcher in Olympic competition, it follows a combined no-hitter by Jennie Finch and Monica Abbott in Tuesday’s opening 11-0 win over Venezuela.

“I really wasn’t thinking about (the no-hitter) too much until the end,” said Osterman, the former University of Texas standout. “Obviously, the seventh inning, you kind of get a feel of what’s going on, and I saw the scoreboard.

“It’s nice. It is, but we have a lot more games to play and obviously, the gold medal is the ultimate thing. So in the end, if I would have to trade this in, I would trade it for a gold medal. That’s the only thing we’re working on.”

The U.S. took the lead in the bottom of the fifth, when Lovieanne Jung walked with one out, stole second with two outs and scored on a single to left — just over the glove of shortstop Natalie Ward — by Natasha Watley. Then came Bustos’ homer in the sixth, after Jessica Mendoza drew a walk from Australia pitcher Tanya Harding to lead off the inning.

Bustos had walked and flied out in two earlier at bats, but with Mendoza on first in the sixth, Harding was not able to pitch around her. The result was her second home run of the tournament, and the fourth for the U.S. in two days.

Australia was the last team to beat the U.S. in Olympic competition, a 2-1 victory in 13 innings in pool play at the 2000 Games. Since then, the U.S. has won 16 games, 14 by shutout, outscoring opponents 79-2. But Wednesday’s contest that was scoreless into the fifth was more what the U.S. expected.

“We didn’t expect to come in and kill everybody,” Mendoza said. “Yesterday was really nice, but we knew Australia was going to battle us. We know Canada’s going to come after us, and Japan, and there’s a lot of teams that are going to be like this. And we’ve got to be ready.”

Coach Mike Candrea agreed.

“I think it’s a very competitive field, and like I told our kids, you can’t ever get comfortable,” he said. “I don’t care what the score is, you can’t get comfortable because I think the pitchers are better and the hitters are better.”

That being the case, Candrea thought the way the U.S. scored its first run — with the help of one of its four stolen bases — was significant.

“The big thing right now is you saw today how we put ourselves in position to score a run, and that’s overall speed. I think that’s one thing about this team we tried to develop … understanding that we’re going to be in close games, and baserunning really makes a difference in those close games. Because all you’re looking for is getting yourself in position to score as often as possible, and getting the key hit.”